In 2021/22 NHS England supported integrated care systems (ICSs) to scope delivery of carer contingency planning. The insight from ICS-led projects and recommendations from ICS learning, along with links to case studies, are outlined in this document.

ICSs need to take steps to understand current provision in the system; determine routes for information sharing, train professionals, communicate what is available to both carers and professionals and measure to determine impact.

Accessible version published 13 October 2023.

Letter from Steve Russell, Chief Delivery Officer and National Director for Vaccinations and Screening, NHS England.

Published 14 June 2023.

The Department of Health and Social Care has issued statutory guidance to support integrated care partnerships produce integrated care strategies. This will set the direction for how a system should work together to improve the health and wellbeing of local populations through collaboration, joint working and integration. The Department of Health and Social Care has worked closely with NHS England and the Local Government Association to develop this document.

Published 29 July 2022.

This document, co-produced by Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the Local Government Association, sets out a series of principles to guide how integrated care partnerships engage with adult social care providers. It recognises the importance of the sector as a strategic partner in the health and care system.

Published 29 July 2022.

This guidance sets out the steps for integrated care boards to apply to NHS England for approval to amend their constitutions.

Published 12 July 2022.

Integrated care boards should consider this guidance in reviewing their governance. It takes into account legislative and policy changes introduced since their establishment on 1 July 2022.

Accessible content. Updated 26 July 2024.

A commitment was given to Parliament during consideration of the Health and Care Act 2022 that every integrated care board would identify lead members of the board with explicit responsibility for the following population groups:

• children and young people (aged 0 to 25)
• children and young people with special educational needs and disability
• safeguarding (all age) including care leavers
• learning disability and autism (all-age)
• Down syndrome (all-age)

To support systems, we have drafted guidance to support the fulfilment of these functions and outline the responsibilities of these roles in more detail.

Accessible content. Updated 26 July 2024.

This annex, to the guidance on preparing integrated care board constitutions, presents the model constitution for integrated care boards. It is has been updated to help ensure that integrated care board constitutions comply with legal and policy requirements, including appropriate local flexibility.

Updated 26 July 2024.

Integrated care partnerships are a critical part of integrated care systems, jointly convened by local authorities and the NHS.

In March 2022, NHS England, alongside the Local Government Association and the Department of Health and Social Care, published Integrated care partnership: engagement summary which collates the findings of joint engagement on the vision for integrated care partnerships, set out in September 2021.

Published 23 March 2022.

This engagement document was co-produced by the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, and the Local Government Association. It sets out our expectations for the role of integrated care partnerships within integrated care systems.

It is designed to support local authorities, integrated care boards and other key stakeholders to consider what arrangements might work best in their area when laying the foundations for establishing integrated care partnership.

Published 15 September 2021 and updated 20 September 2021.

This co-produced NHS England and NHS Improvement and Local Government Association document supports all partner organisations in integrated care systems to collectively define their place-based partnership working, and to consider how they will evolve to support the transition to the new statutory integrated care board arrangements, anticipated from April 2022.

Published September 2021.

The integrated care system design framework sets the expectation that partners in an integrated care system should agree how to listen consistently to, and collectively act on, the experience and aspirations of local people and communities. This guidance sets out 10 principles for how integrated care boards can develop their approaches to working with people and communities, and the expectations.

Published September 2021.

This guidance supports the development of distributed clinical and care professional leadership across integrated care systems. It describes ‘what good looks like’ in this regard, based on an extensive engagement exercise involving over 2,000 clinical and care professional leaders from across the country, led by a multi-professional steering group.

Published September 2021.

This guidance provides more detail on how to embed voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector partnerships in integrated care systems, for health and care leaders from all organisations in integrated care systems that are developing partnerships across local government, health, housing, social care and the VCSE sector. The Integrated care system design framework sets the expectation that integrated care board governance and decision-making arrangements support close working with the VCSE sector as a strategic partner in shaping, improving and delivering services, and developing and delivering plans to tackle the wider determinants of health.

Published September 2021.

The Human resources framework provides national policy ambition and practical support for NHS organisations affected by the proposed legislative changes as they develop and transition towards the new statutory integrated care boards.

Published August 2021, updated March 2022.

This guidance builds on the priorities set out in the People Plan. It is intended to help NHS system leaders and their partners support their ‘one workforce’ by delivering key outcome-based people functions from April 2022.

Published August 2021.

The Integrated care system design framework set an expectation that provider collaboratives will be a key component in enabling integrated care systems to deliver their core purpose. This guidance outlines minimum expectations for how providers should work together in provider collaboratives, offering principles to support local decision-making and suggesting the function and form that systems and providers may wish to consider.

Published 10 August 2021.

Published 16 June 2021.

Published 16 June 2021.

In early 2021 NHS England made five recommendations to the Government on the question of how to legislate to place integrated care systems on a statutory footing, having gathered the views of the NHS, local government and wider stakeholders.

Accessible version published 11 February 2021 and updated 3 October 2022.

This document set out NHS England’s proposals for how integrated care systems and their constituent organisations could accelerate collaborative ways of working in future, considering the key components of an effective integrated care system and reflecting what a range of local leaders told us about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Published 26 November 2020 and updated 15 January 2021.